Someone slap me!

**Poobah58** · 01-19-2009, 11:36 PM

Man, did I screw up. I was making a mead yesterday. Putting honey into a juice container, shaking the hell out of it to get a good mix, then dumping into the fermenter.
I then decide to rack my 2 month old Blueberry Mead off the berries. I racked to another carboy and was a little short so I decided to top off with a honey/juice mixture. So what do I do?

Yep, I add some honey to my blueberry juice, shook the snot out of it, then topped off!!!! It didn't dawn on me until several hours later that I just added oxygen to my precious mead! Is there any hope? Am I doomed? Anything I can do? Maybe I should stabilize???

The Blow Leprechaun · 01-20-2009, 01:16 AM

I don't think stabilizing will get rid of any oxygen that's in there, it'll just deal with the yeast, but maybe wine-making have some trick for it.

It sounds like you only oxygenated a small portion, I'll bet it'll be okay, I just wouldn't set this batch aside for long term aging.

Tusch · 01-20-2009, 01:31 AM

Perhaps racking it and adding campden. That may help strip some of the oxygen out of solution.

Matrix4b · 01-20-2009, 02:01 PM

I have personally found that this does not matter too much. Extra Oxygen really comes in to play for me when you bottle for aging. Or if bulk aging. A little extra air in it shouldn't hurt it too much. I recomend that you just mix the extra in a bowl or a pot rahter than a blender next time. This way it does get blended. It will also get mixed when you rack it next, the aging processm, if bulk aging does make sure that it is mixed well. I have found that mead is a lot more forgiving than people think.

**beerthirty** · 01-20-2009, 02:35 PM

It will start fermenting again due to the extra honey you added. It now has to go through fermentation again before you can sulphite it or bottle it.